Historically, the problem of how to safely, conveniently and inexpensively dispose of sewage and sewage-contaminated water has plagued society. Although sewage disposal methods have evolved over time, the current methods of either installing septic tanks or hooking into a main sewer line have many drawbacks.
The current use of septic tanks is unwise from an environmental point of view. First of all, rather than being recycled and reused in some productive manner, the waste water flowing from septic tanks is currently disposed of by means of underground septic tank lines. In many instances, this septic tank waste water contaminates ground water and local lakes and streams thereby making drinking water unsafe and endangering aquatic plant and animal life. Secondly, under drought conditions, the failure to recycle septic tank waste water often means that grass, flowers, trees, bushes and other plant life die needlessly. Thirdly, in the process of installing septic tank lines and sewer lines, it is usually necessary to destroy large areas of vegetation.
From an economic standpoint, the failure to recycle septic tank waste water means that uncontaminated water becomes a more expensive commodity than it otherwise would be. Additionally, the shortcomings of the current septic tanks increase consumer demand for expensive sewage treatment plants. This, in turn, increases local taxes and water bills.
Another major drawback of the current methods of sewage disposal is that they are often inoperable on many remote land lots. For instance, land lots which cannot be hooked into city or county sewer lines, often have physical qualities, such as steep grades, rocky terrain or high water tables, which make the use of septic tanks impossible. Accordingly, such land lots are often deemed unusable.
A further major drawback of the current methods of sewage disposal is that even if the topography of a particular land lot will accommodate the installation of a septic tank, the size of that land lot must be kept relatively large since the current septic tanks require a large area of land in which to drain.